Greenville leaders discuss public safety at town hall

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) -Greenville City Council hosted a town hall on public safety Thursday night.

The session took place inside the ECU Main Campus Student Center off 10th Street.

Greenville Police Chief Ted Sauls and ECU Police Chief Jon Barnwell were both present at the meeting. Barnwell says crime in Greenville is returning to pre-pandemic levels.

“There’s nothing alarming other than seeing a slight increase in criminal activity in crimes for 2022 as opposed to 2021,” Barnwell said. “That simply means we were adversely affected by COVID and the shutdowns during 2020 and 2021. We’re coming back to a sense of normalcy in 2022. Therefore, our crime is going back up, it’s just going back to 2019 numbers.”

Barnwell says ECU Police will host a ‘night walk’ with students in the spring to find bad lighting spots, to ensure safety for students walking around at night.

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